1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an immersion medium supply apparatus which supplies an immersion medium to a liquid immersion objective, a fluorescence spectrometry inspection apparatus, and a culture microscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that the reaction of a biological sample such as protein is largely influenced by a change in temperature. There are various ideas for keeping a sample at a predetermined temperature when observing such a biological sample.
Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 60-156521 discloses one of the technologies to realize the idea of keeping the temperature of a specimen constant by providing a heating element or an electric heating plate in a stage, and heating a specimen set in a glass laboratory dish and placed on the stage by such a heating element or an electric heating plate.
Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-36118 discloses another technology to control a sample temperature constant by providing a pipe to supply water controlled to an appropriate temperature around a sample and an objective, and flowing water at a predetermined temperature in the pipe. Further, as disclosed by Jpn. UM Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 3-25598, it is also well known to provide a heating means in a heat retaining box of a solvent observation container placed on a mounting table constructed partially of a heating body, to control the solvent sample in the solvent observation container to an appropriate heat retaining state.
Recently, as disclosed by PCT National Publication No. 2001-502062, there has been considered an inspection method for specifying the reaction of a biological molecule by catching the motion of a fluorescent labeled molecule floating in a micro area in liquid by fluorescence microscope photometry.
This method uses a sample vessel called a micro plate having many wells for inspection, which is made of resin or uses a cover glass at the bottom. A fluorescent labeled sample is put in each well of the micro plate, the fluorescence from the fluorescent labeled sample is detected by a micro plate reader, the intensity of fluctuation radiated from the sample is monitored, and the sample is analyzed. In this case, the sample in the well of the micro plate is in the state where small and large molecules are floating in the liquid. Excitation light is condensed at the floating molecule by a liquid immersion objective through the cover glass at the bottom of the micro plate, the excited fluorescence is detected by the molecule resolution, and the molecule nature is determined by a computation.